2016 ISR Research Forum: Where Research meets the Real World

ISR held its twelfth Research Forum on May 27th. The goal of the ISR Forum is to foster interaction between industry and ISR researchers, and encourage research collaborations amongst all. The day-long event featured two keynote speakers from industry; seven faculty talks; an Open House with posters and demonstrations of research projects, and a reception with posters to close the day.  This year’s Forum attracted over 120 attendees from 28 companies and law firms, and 6 universities.

The morning keynote, “Software Architecture: The Dismal Science,” was delivered with wit and insight by alumnus Dr. Eric Dashofy, Principal Director of Development, Enterprise Information Services at The Aerospace Corp.

Dr. Marija Mikic, Software Engineering Manager at Google, gave the afternoon keynote,“Software Engineering at Google Scale,” where she addressed challenges faced by their software engineers.

The seven faculty talks covered a broad range of topics: simulation of cities; crowd design; mobile app security; global software engineering; IoT privacy; and a software engineering perspective on expert witness engagements.

The Open House provided an ideal opportunity for attendees to interact with researchers one-on-one and learn about projects firsthand.  Ph.D. student Vaibhav Saini noted, “One thing I really appreciate about the Forum Open House is that we get feedback from both researchers and practitioners.  The Open House has just the right number of attendees, making it easy to get people’s attention and have valuable conversations.”

Dr. Dashofy reflected on the event and Aerospace Corp.’s relationship with ISR: “As an ISR alum now working in industry at The Aerospace Corporation, events like the ISR Forum help us maintain and strengthen our connection to the research, people, and products being developed at UCI.  Aerospace’s long relationship with ISR via our Corporate University Affiliates Program (CUAP) has resulted in mutually beneficial exchanges for years:  UCI and Aerospace personnel regularly give seminars and talks at each other’s facilities, collaborate on research projects, and partner on student capstone classes.  The knowledge exchange that occurs helps keep Aerospace aware of emerging and innovative ideas, technologies, and products that we can incorporate into our work.  The ISR Forum is also a unique opportunity to make industry-to-industry connections with other attendees from different companies in different domains – many of them ISR alumni as well.

“In addition to exchanging knowledge, we also exchange people!  Many ISR students have come to work for Aerospace over the years as interns and full-time staff, and occasionally an Aerospace employee will pursue continuing education opportunities at UCI.  In fact, my first exposure to Aerospace was as a grad student at ISR events like the Forum, and now I’m proud to represent Aerospace on the other side of that relationship.”

For more information, including videos of most talks and presenters’ slides, visit:  http://isr.uci.edu/isr-events/forum/2016/. 

Photos from this event are in this photo album.